Briefly: Today at Disney’s CinemaCon presentation, the studio announced that beginning in 2015 we’ll see a new Star Wars movie every summer. The plan is to begin with Episode VII, written byMichael Arndt and directed by JJ Abrams, then alternate between standalone “spin-off” movies and new Episodes in the core storyline.

We’ve known that Disney has been working with the idea of doing many new Star Wars films, beginning with the announcement that there could be one every two to three years, as stated when Disney bought LucasFilm. We’ve also heard that spin-offs might alternate with the core storyline. But this is the first studio confirmation of a plan, and also a pretty aggressive statement. Disney really isn’t messing around with the Star Wars franchise.

The precise characters and storylines for the films, both “core” and spin-off, have not been revealed. This is also the best confirmation we’ve had so far that 2015 will see the release of Episode VII. That date was floated months ago, but JJ Abrams said 2015 wasn’t locked. Looks like Disney wants the one-two punch of Episode VII and The Avengers 2 to own summer ’15.